Jane Doe hung her head in defeat yesterday after a heated police board meeting that ended exactly the way she had feared it would – "Nothing's going to change," she said.

Jane Doe hung her head in defeat yesterday after a heated police board meeting that ended exactly the way she had feared it would – "Nothing's going to change," she said.

Doe, this city's most famous crusader against sexual assault, knew the police services board wouldn't reinstate a committee it abruptly disbanded last year.

That committee was set up to improve the way police view women, rape and investigate sexual assault. Doe said she doesn't want to reprise her role on it anyway.

Still, she's frustrated by new methods the board passed yesterday to ensure Toronto officers are better trained to handle sexual assault, warn the public of serial rapists at large, use technology such as rape kits, and encourage victims to come forward.

After the four-hour meeting, members of the board agreed unanimously to form an advisory committee, develop a process to evaluate how and if changes are made, hold the process up for scrutiny in a public forum, have Police Chief Bill Blair report semi-annually on the force's progress, and send the entire contents of the meeting to the city's auditor general.

Jeffery Griffiths will be back this fall to probe whether the Toronto police has fulfilled its promise to implement a series of recommendations he first proposed nearly 10 years ago – when Jane Doe won her monumental victory against the force.

In 1999 a judge ruled systemic sexism was behind the investigation into the "balcony rapist" – the man who attacked Doe in 1986.

To Doe, the board's new methods amount to little more than shutting down one committee and set up another version that's been redesigned with "no teeth."

"It's the same mandate but with less power," she said.

"It's something that will support the current culture of police investigations of sexual assault – as in nothing's going to change."

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